Hello,
We woke up this morning to ghastly horribly brutish green ants dragging bees out of the nuc entrance and killing them.
The hive is on blocks. I’ll make a stand today and coat the legs in vaseline. I’ve put cinnamon around it for the time being… Does anyone else have any ideas? Broke my heart to see the poor girls being mangled.
Lots of discussion and links here:
http://forum.honeyflow.com/t/ants-in-the-keyway/6102/2?u=dawn_sd
Most people seem to find oil moats are the most effective.
I was worried about ants and was searching the web for ideas. Cemented 1inch steel pipe made into T’s into the ground. Layer 2x4’s acrossed them. I’m going to place a ring of grease on the pipe to try and prevent the buggers from climbing up.
Impressive, Randy! The ants certainly won’t have much choice of access to your hives.
Are you going to the SDBA Meeting in Balboa meeting on Monday? Splits and swarm prevention, if I remember right. 
Nice!!!
This is what I’ve done (blocks, grease and cans filled with oil) but I did but I find these devices made out of downpipe. Which I’ll have a go at
.So they are a smaller pipe inside a bigger pipe, on a piece of plastic. Filled with oil. Cd on top to stop bees drowning.
At present I’ve effected an emergency solution. But will come up with something more permanent as I go.
Now just have to check nuc to make sure queen is ok.
Blimey! Aren’t there a lot of things that can kill you in Australia ?
To be fair… I got nothing. Yes, there are a lot of things that will kill you in Australia. But the weather can be nice¿
Try gear oil. It has a strong sulfer smell and lasts for a long time and is easily applied to the pole. I’m concerned grease might get dusty fairly quickly. Love the pole idea.
hi , its the Captain ,
I had little bugger ants at it in just one hive so I put the stand legs in water buckets - problem solved .no noticeable mosquito breeding yet , I found the ant problem seasonal and have no water in the buckets now . When they reappear , I will give them swimming lessons again but they do not like to swim so they go elsewhere .
ps I float a few leaves to act as rafts for the occasional bee that takes a swim . mortality is very low on all gods creatures and seems environmentally friendlier than Greece.
Hi Valli ,
its the Captain a little off topic but here goes
AN ADVERTISMENT PERHAPS - IN THE BEE MAG ;-
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There are lots of ants crawling around on the outside of the hive trying to get in. Will the bees kill them if they get in or do I need to spray the ants? If I need to spray, is there a ant killer that won’t harm the bees?
Don’t spray them, but you do need to deal with them. They can starve the bees if the colony is new, by stealing their stores. Try some of these threads on the forum:
Next time you have a question, you can search the Forum with the magnifying glass tool at the upper right, to see if it has already been answered. 
I found not many got in. And (after watching them for an hour or two) the bees sacrifice themselves to get rid of the ants. So one bee will come out attached to one ant and fly off to get rid of it. A bit heartbreaking.
Spray will kill the bees.
We…
Surrounded the hive in cinnamon.
Put the hive on a knocked up stand.
Put the legs of the stand in oil (in big tuna tins).
Then put grease (that doesn’t melt) around each leg. Pictures of the type of solutions I found.
Apparently ants can wipe out a hive.
Also, if they are meat eating ants (and if they are attacking the bees it’s likely) then the active ingredient you put in tick treatment for dogs (fipronyl) can be mixed with mince and put in the ant trail (away from dogs, kids etc). They will take the poisoned meat back to the nest 
Grease in the cap
Google search ‘ant proof bee hive’ and go off the pictures
Are you sure that the bee flying out dies? They do this with trash too, then return to the hive when they have dropped it. So maybe you don’t need to grieve too much, unless you are grieving for the ant! 
